Charter school wanted names of New Bedford's eighth-graders but never asked

Wednesday

Apr 9, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 9, 2014 at 5:40 AM

City on a Hill Charter School Executive Director Erica Brown said she never made a formal request because negotiations with Mayor Jon Mitchell's office broke down.

CAROL KOZMA

NEW BEDFORD — Seeking students for the City on a Hill Charter School, Executive Director Erica Brown said she wanted to include all of the city's public school eighth-graders in a lottery for seats.

But Brown said she never made a formal request to do so because negotiations with Mayor Jon Mitchell's office broke down.

"The idea was that everyone in the eighth grade would be automatically signed up for the lottery and we were totally on board for that," she said, adding the idea originally came from the mayor's office itself.

That would have been an opt out lottery, where all students are included and parents can then contact the school and "opt out" of the process if they don't want their children attending the school, she said.

Brown said the process "requires significant cooperation from the mayor's office and Superintendent (Pia Durkin's) office and the School Committee to get us just the names to go into the bowl."

But conversations with the mayor's office broke down, she said.

Brown said the mayor's office "adopted a position where they in general decided to oppose City on a Hill's application ... and so working with City on a Hill in any way sent a mixed message to constituents that they were supportive of (the school)."

So City on a Hill adopted an "opt in" lottery, which means only students who applied to the school were entered into a lottery held in March, she said.

Elizabeth Treadup Pio, spokeswoman for Mitchell, said the mayor's educational priority is the city's public schools. He has concerns with City on a Hill's "low performance on advanced placement testing and on retention of special ed students," she said.

Brown said after the talks broke down, she didn't make a formal request for the eighth-graders' names.

School Committee member Lawrence Finnerty said had Brown made that request, it would have been the committee's decision whether to include all students into the lottery.

"If (City on a Hill officials) wanted access to the names of the eighth grade students in the city ... they just needed to put something in writing," Finnerty said.

Often, families who are not well informed do not realize they can send their children to charter schools, he said. The opt out policy is gaining momentum as a way to inform parents.

Brown said she and other City on a Hill officials assumed that the mayor's office would be working in cooperation with the committee.

City on a Hill Charter School will open this fall in the downtown area but has yet to announce its final location. The school offered seats to all 128 students who applied at the March lottery.

Because not all those students are expected to accept a seat, a second lottery will be held on May 2, said Marisa Burgess, assistant director of development and community relations at City on a Hill.